Plague, The

Plague, The, is a very malignant kind of highly contagious fever,
marked by swellings of the lymphatic glands. From the development of
purple patches due to subcutaneous hæmorrhages the European epidemic of
1348-50 was called the Black Death. A quarter of the European population
perished on that occasion. Other visitations devastated London in 1665,
Northern Europe 1707-14, Marseilles and Provence 1720-22, and South-East
Russia 1878-79. The home of the Plague was formerly Lower Egypt, Turkey,
and the shores of the Levant. From these it has been absent since 1844.
Its home since then has been in India, where it has assumed epidemic form
1836-38 and 1896-99.